Conventional vending machines may be equipped with sensors (e.g., coin detectors) and actuators (e.g., beverage dispensers) that have proprietary interfaces to the machine. Accordingly, installing a sensor or actuator on a vending machine may also involve installing a sensor- or actuator-specific driver and/or rewriting application code on the machine in order enable communications to take place with the installed sensor/actuator. Such an approach may result in increased fleet management costs. Additionally, remote monitoring of vending machines may be limited to detecting when a machine is completely non-operational. The quality of the dispensed product, however, may gradually deteriorate over time in a fashion that leads to a negative user experience prior to detection of the malfunction. Moreover, fleet management costs may be further increased by additional labor and/or parts associated with delayed notification of deteriorating vending machine health. Indeed, a considerable amount of revenue may be lost due to machine “down time” in such a case.